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News from IEM Oakland

Today 5Aces news will be focusing and looking into IEM Oakland. What is going down? Who won? Who lost? Prize pool? All of this and more! To begin with, 12 teams had been testing their skill against one another for the past two days. Their objective is to reach their final goal in this five day tournament; the $300,000 prize pool and a really high-end victory.

What is going down? The event is taking place in Oakland, San Francisco at the Oracle Arena. The Golden State Warriors’ venue. The teams will have a chance to make another big mark in the world this time around for sure. The 12 teams will be split into two groups; Group A and Group B, just usual.

Group A: Astralis, G2, Immortals, Liquid, Natus Vincere, TyLoo

Group B: Cloud9, FaZe, Heroic, Mousesports, NiP, SK Gaming

The first two days (Wednesday and Thursday) were filled with group stages and playoffs. All the teams were battling the group stages, but only six of them triumphed to the playoffs. The 1st placers will earn a nice two day break (Friday and Saturday) where they will skip and wait for the quarterfinals to end. This will take the 2nd and 3rd placers to the playoffs. After a day of break (Friday), these quarterfinalists will take an extra step to get to the semifinals. Then? The awaited Grand final!

Who are the winners so far, and who lost? There has been many winners, and many losers. Such is the game of CS:GO. Wednesday and Thursday were full of sweet and sour BO1s.

Group A, Wednesday 16th

First off, Liquid vs Na’Vi. This would have been a hard matchup, if Na’Vi didn’t make unfortunate mistakes early on. Despite Na’Vi’s efforts to take back the rounds they lost making those mistakes, Liquid owned this match scoring as high as 16:6 on Nuke.

Meanwhile, Immortals were having a bit of a tough break punching through TyLoo. Both teams approaching this match slowly and carefully, passing the lead to one another multiple times. Immortals still managed to reach their target, and pulled off an overtime victory against TyLoo, 19:17 on Mirage.

Next up, it was Astralis and G2. This match was another one of these, where the teams keep taking back their rounds. Well, after the fight was over, G2 took their hard fought win, 16:12 on Nuke. Not giving Astralis a chance for any more rounds in the end.

These first three matches of Group A went on to shape the whole of day one. After a long streak of BO1 matchups, Astralis managed to pull of a sweet finishing victory against TyLoo, 16:9 on Mirage. They qualified straight for the semis, and now have the entirety of Friday and Saturday to prepare. In addition, the 2nd and 3rd placers, Immortals and G2. Immortals taking another overtime victory. This time against Na’Vi, 19:15 on Mirage. G2, also not giving up easy, took Liquid on a ride with 19:17 overtime win on Nuke. They are now on their way to the playoffs on Saturday.

Group B, Thursday 17th

On the second day, the games started us off with a BO1 of Heroic vs SK Gaming. It was some performance these two teams presented the audience with. Taking their time and slowly pushing to the 16:13 Cobblestone triumph for Heroic, which they managed to secure.

While Heroic were heroically taking their victory, FaZe were leading a charge against Cloud9. Problem was, FaZe had come to meet their opponents ready, since Cloud9 were also beating loud on their war drums. This match was one of a kind, where more than one comeback occurred. FaZe were leading far ahead until Cloud9 decided otherwise. Cloud9 managed to take back a few rounds that took the match to the end of the first half, still not enough to lead, though. FaZe came back this time, leaving Cloud9 far down the road yet again. Although, Cloud9 didn’t give up yet, and still pulled up a few rounds, and were finally leading the score. FaZe took their chances, grabbed Cloud9 and climbed up right above them, taking the match to overtime. There, it was a few rounds of chaos until FaZe finally took their well deserved win, 19:17 on Mirage.

Mousesports have been playing well recently, but it seems that their strength was still not enough to take NiP out. Overpass was not kind to mous, as NiP slowly and surely crushed them under their well known skill level. NiP was practically always on top, leading tha game. Mous was catching up, and they managed to weld the first half to a standard 9:6. Sadly, it was too little, too late to be victorious. Instead, NiP finished off with a 16:8 score.

Just like Group A on day one, the first three matches of day two with Group B shaped up the next following games that the teams participated in. There could be only three out of six winners, though. FaZe were on top of the other two. FaZe shielded themselves a steady 16:11 victory against SK, which took them straight to the semifinals, without the need for quarterfinals. They will be joining Astralis in a two day break until Sunday, while SK and Cloud9 advance to the playoffs. SK executed NiP on Cobblestone, winning 16:9, and now awaiting Saturday to push onwards. Furthermore, Heroic were not heroic enough to take out Cloud9 this time. Grabbing a 16:12 sweep, Cloud9 will forward to the playoffs alongside SK, leaving the rest of the teams behind.

To catch up or relive the moments with more detail, check out the HLTV news archive for articles of all the matchups, guides and previews from Oakland. If you want to jump in and continue watching with the community, go to the official ESL stream A or stream B. Stay tuned for more news after the event is over!